The Association of Family-Related Adversity With Fighting in Adolescents: Does Hopelessness Mediate This Association?

Objectives: To explore the association of family-related adversities with physical fighting, and whether this association is mediated by hopelessness. Methods: The sample consisted of 3712 Slovak adolescents (mean age: 13.9, 50.7% girls). Participants answered questions regarding experienced family-related adversities, involvement in physical fighting in the last 12 months and the Hopelessness Questionnaire. All scores were standardized, and Z-scores were used in all analysis. First, the association of family adversities in general with fighting and of each of family-related adversity separately was assessed using linear regression models and second, mediation was assessed using the a*b product method with bootstrapped 95% confidence intervals (CI). Results: Adolescents who had experienced at least one family adversity reported more frequent fighting in the last year (B = 0.2119, p< 0.001, 95%-CI: 0.132–0.295). Adolescents reported death of parent (B=0.35, p< 0.001, 95%-CI: 0.15-0.54), substance abuse problems of parent (B=0.30, p< 0.001, 95%-CI: 0.1-0.42), conflicts /physical fights (B=0.26, p< 0.001, 95%-CI: 0.16-0.36) and divorce between parents (B=0.13, p=0.01, 95%-CI: 0.04-0.22) were more frequently involved in fighting. Next, hopelessness mediated the association of family adversities with fighting (ab= 0.03, 95%-CI: 0.02-0.05). Hopelessness mediated the association of each of family-related adversity with fighting; in case of death of parent ab= 0.05 (95% CI: 0.02-0.08), substance abuse problems of parent ab= 0.07 (95% CI: 0.04-0.10), conflicts/physical fights ab= 0.05 (95% CI: 0.03-0.08) and divorce ab= 0.02 (95% CI: 0.01-0.04). Conclusion: Hopelessness mediated the association of family adversities with fighting in adolescents. These findings suggest that interventions to support adolescents who had experienced family adversities could among other things be directed at better coping with hopelessness.